Steampunk Ceiling Light

I am going to use this base from an old globe. I will use this as the base for the ceiling light.

The concept is to create three wooden arms that will mount to the base. One will hold the bulb inside the glass sphere shown here. The other two will point back towards the sphere.

First I taper cut some oak that will create the three forearms.

The edges were notched using a router. All of the arm edges will have quarter inch brass rod inlaid as shown here.

The upper arm of each were cut and notched as well. The upper arms were not tapered.

Then wood blocks were cut that will be mounted to the base and be the attachment points for the arms.

The blocks mount with 1/4 inch screws to the base.

For the lamp arm I decided to remake the the block from steel. The lamp will be much more heavy. Thought the oak block might split from the pressure.

These are two views of the upper arms mounted to the base.

The two forearms that will not support the lamp were trimmed down and rounded to shape.

I used a paper tube the same diameter as the lamp sphere to figure out where to mount the forearms.

The forearms were drilled. Some gears were added to steampunk it up a bit.

This is a close up of the arms mounted to the base with brass plates.

Brass plates were also used to attach the two forearm pieces.

This is another view.

The forearm for the lamp was pre-drilled to accept a 1/8 NPS threaded lamp rod.

A 1/8 inch copper plate will be used to mount the rod to the forearm.

Here the copper plate has been cut to size ready to be attached.

The lamp rod mounted to the forearm.

A 1 and 3/4 inch piece pf copper tubing will be used to mount the bulb socket to the lamp forearm.

This lamp washer and the copper tube were drilled to accept brackets that will hold the washer to the tube.

Quarter inch brass flat stock was used to create the brackets.

The brackets attach at the edge.

The lamp socket mounted to the lamp rod.

A view of the lamp housing from below.

12/10/18

I did some more work on Sunday. I have started to work on the finish surfaces as well as the mount for the glass globe.

Here the base mounting blocks have been painted black. You can also see the brass acorn nuts that will be used in the final mountings.

The two upper arms were stained and varnished.

Mounting rods for the globe were cut to length and drilled. They are seen in the picture on the bottom temporarily mounted.

The globe will rest on these rods.

Right angle pieces will be attached to each support.

Each right angle vertical piece was then drilled and soldered into place.

The tops of each vertical rod were drilled and tapped to accept 6-32 brass set screws.

Here the globe has been mounted to the support with the set screws holding it in place.

The forearm for the lamp/globe support was held in place in order to mark it for cutting and mounting permanently.

The forearm piece was cut and slotted then glued into place.

This is a view of the base with the three arms mounted. Two have been stained and varnished, but are missing the forearm pieces. The third is the lamp arm with the upper and fore arm pieces in place. This will be stained and varnished next.

Close up of base with arms mounted.

Mounting bracket for the forearms of the non-lamp support arms.

Close of lamp arm mounted to the base.

12/12/18

I was looking at the mount for the lamp on the third arm and realized that the whole lamp assembly would be supported by these two small wood screws.

So I soldered some brass plates to the copper mount in order to make it into a flange. This will be attached onto the end of the arm. Now it will be held in place with two screws through the flange and the end of the lamp arm.

Then I realized that I drilled the holes too far apart.

So I re-drilled the holes and added some patches to the old holes.

In the mean time I had stained and varnished the remaining wood pieces. Here is the hole thing reassembled temporarily. Now you can get a better picture of what the light will eventually look like. Next up is apply the quarter inch brass rod inlays to all edges. Then the light still needs to be wired. Finally there will be some other embellishments.

12/15/18

I decided to work on the arm that holds the lamp first. Here I wired the socket and lamp holder.

Here you can see the lamp socket inside the holder.

The next step is cutting and fitting all of the brass inlay pieces for the lamp arms. Here I am cutting an angle onto the first piece.

After cutting the angles, the pieces were put in place to check fit.

AT the top all of the brass inlay pieces for the lamp arm have been cut and shaped. On the bottom they have been pre-drilled for attaching to the oak arm with #4 1/2 inch brass wood screws.

The brass was held in place with clamps. The wood was then drilled and the screws added.

These are two views of the brass inlays screwed into place on the lamp arm.

Gears were added in the area of the joint to make it look like the joint is mechanically adjustable.

The completed and wired lamp arm. The cloth covered wire goes through two brass eyes and into the base.

Another view of the completed lamp arm

A shot from the other side. Next I’ll be working on the inlays for the other arms. Pretty close to being done.

12/16/18

Today I completed the brass inlays on the other two arms.

I started by completing the two forearm pieces.

This is the forearm mounted.

This is with both mounted. Then I took the arms back apart in order to add the inlays to the upper arms.

This is the first arm completed.

Both arms completed and mounted.

This is another view.

This is a picture of the lamp test.

And finally one more of the lamp test.

All that is left to do is make a 1/8 NPS threaded finial in order to mount it to the ceiling.